Temporal Realism and the R-Theory
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20044809 |
|---|---|
| Authors | L Nathan Oaklander (0000-0002-0199-7055, University of Michigan–Flint, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Pages | 123-140 |
| Publication date | 2014-10-27 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | Defending Realism (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | De Gruyter (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/9781614516651.123 |
| OpenAlex | W51149106 |
| ISBN | 9781614516651 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 7 |
t is common to distinguish two different theorists of time; those who maintain a dynamic view of time endorse the idea that time involves transition, flow or passage from one temporal object to the next, and those who maintain a static view of time that involves unchanging and fixed relations between temporal objects, and unchanging (tenseless) facts.Based on McTaggart's article on "The Unreality of Time" and chapter on "Time," from The Nature of Existence, and gaining popularity with Richard Gale's anthology on The Philosophy of Time, and book on The Language of Time, the various incarnations of these two views have come to be called the A-theory, after McTaggart's Aseries of events ordered by the A-properties of pastness, presentness and futurity, and the B-theory after McTaggart's B-series of events ordered by the B-relations of earlier than and later than. 1 One of the purportedly strongest arguments in support of the A-theory and against the B-theory is based on the phenomenology of temporal experience which is dynamic and not static as seemingly required by the B-theory.Btheorists typically buy into this line of reasoning, if not its conclusion, and develop anti-realist (that is, mind-dependent) views of the dynamic aspects of temporal experience and reductive analyses of the tenses and becoming that are compatible with a static, or four-dimensional, Block universe.Ironically, it seems to me, as I shall argue, that without the Bseries, it is the A-theory that is static, and without the A-series it is the 1 Cf
Epistemology · Realism · Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence · Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |